AS Practical Skills

(Paper 3)

ALLEN
2017
 Significant figures

You have no right to use more significant figures in your

final answer than you had in your original data because
that implies a better percentage uncertainty, a more
accurate experiment, than you actually had!
 Rounding Off
When we have a number with more digits than we require, we must ROUND OFF the
number.

We shall define “last digit” to be the last of the significant figures in which we are
interested, such that we are going to get rid of all digits to the right of the “
last digit”.

We shall also define “deciding digit” to be the digit to the immediate right of the “
last digit”, and“ successive digits ” to be all the digits (if any) to the right of the
deciding digit.
How Many Significant Figures In An Answer?
How Many Significant Figures In An Answer?
When Should I Round Off?
Sig. Fig. in Percentage